3%’s Dallas Woods and Angus Field: “This is what we want to be remembered for”

by Billy Burgess | Thursday May 30, 2024 | Features

Dallas Woods and Angus Field of Indigenous hip hop outfit 3% talk to Check Check about making music with fierce intent.

When rappers Dallas Woods and Nooky united with singer Angus Field a couple of years ago, they knew they wanted to make music that could outlive them.

As 3%, the trio of Indigenous musicians are committed to writing songs that will provide more than just entertainment. The group’s debut album, Kill the Dead, due later this year, includes tracks addressing mental health, Indigenous deaths in custody and colonial dispossession.

“It’s so good to stand side by side a bunch of other men and write stuff you know’s not shallow,” Woods tells Check Check. “There’s meaning behind it. We’re doing it for our brothers, our uncles, our nephews.”

Sydney concertgoers will get an early taste of Kill the Dead when 3% perform the entire album at Tumbalong Park on Friday 14 June. 3% will also perform at Blak Day Out, a free, all ages party in Meanjin’s King Street, on Saturday 24 August. The lineup also includes Emma Donovan, Velvet Trip BADASSMUTHA and The Ancient Bloods.

Check Check spoke to Woods and Field about writing songs from the heart, such as latest single “Coming Home,” and creating a legacy to be proud of.

Check Check: Gus, you said “Coming Home” explores themes you’d never previously touched on in your songwriting. Tell me what writing this song meant to you.

Angus Field: Nooks showed me what he’d written in his rap and I knew it was going down the mental health struggle kind of road. I was at a point where I was working as a labourer and this was my last ditch effort to push through and keep going with my music. It was as if everything that had been happening in my music career and my mental health had all come to a head and everything just came out when I was writing this song.

We want people to listen to it and make them feel like it’s OK. That’s why the chorus is like, “I’m comin’ home,” because sometimes it does get a bit too hard and you need the support around you. I’ve had dramas in the past and I’d always find coming home to my family, my hometown, would just make me reset, refocus, and make everything just better. I know for Nooks, too, his family is the biggest part, and his Country, and it was the same idea for him.

Dallas, with 3% more generally, are you committed to making music that has something to say?

Dallas Woods: I think that was a big reason why me and Nooky decided to even make a song together in the beginning. We both respected each other’s ability not to hold back with what we want to say and really put our message right out there instead of trying to beat around the bush.

Me, Gus and Nooks are raised by warriors. So, it’s like, we don’t bite our tongue. We say what we want. And that goes across all aspects. So, if we’re talking about deaths in custody, we’re going to be in your face. If we’re going to talk about men’s mental health, we’re not going to hide nothing about it.

It’s so good to stand side by side a bunch of other men and write stuff you know’s not shallow. There’s meaning behind it. We’re doing it for our brothers, our uncles, our nephews.

What have you learned from working with Dallas and Nooky, Gus?

Gus: I was blown away when I first come in and started writing with Dallas and Nooky because I don’t feel like I’d written in that respect before. A lot of my old songwriting was love songs, but these boys, they were hitting a message, they were pushing out some serious issues and doing it in a way that was so strong and so dominant. I felt like I could run through a wall the first time I had a session with them boys.

What’s it feel like playing the 3% songs live?

Gus: I haven’t felt a feeling like that before – writing music with the fellas and also playing music with the fellas. I honestly didn’t know that music could have such depth as 3% songs do. Like, the first song, “OUR PEOPLE,” singing about youth incarceration, that’s a heavy issue. And it’s like, here you are, take it or leave it. This is what we’re singing about, either jump on board or get out of the way.

It honestly makes me feel so good to be a Blackfella as well. It makes me proud. And when we jumped in the studio, it just happened naturally. Three songs turned into six songs and six songs turned into 14 songs. It was such a natural, easy feeling. There’s no bullshit behind it. It’s who we are.

Dallas, can you tell me more about the motivation to team up with Nooky and Gus and write songs with stronger intent?

Dallas: Nooky told me, when it comes to what he’s already written about, he doesn’t want that to be his legacy. This 3% stuff, he’s going into realms that he hasn’t gone before – he’s talking about his family, he’s talking about his mental health. If we never release another album, this is what we want to be remembered for.

I feel like I’ve always been pretty upfront with who I am in my career and I know Gussy has no problems being vulnerable because that’s such a part of his voice. I think we stand side by side in that and it’s all of us making a legacy piece that our kids’ kids can listen to and know that the people they consider to be warriors, the OGs, were also vulnerable.

Is being a role model something you’re quite conscious of?

Dallas: I found it out the hard way. I’ve been doing youth work half my life. Since I was 15, I started travelling and performing and all that. So, when I’d come back home, I couldn’t do what I’d normally do because without even knowing it, the younger generation were looking up to me.

That comes with a lot of working out exactly what you can and can’t do and realising the power that you have and taking ownership of that power. You can’t change everyone’s perspective, but you can lead by example.

Whenever you’re trying to do anything in a community or tribe, there’s always elders that you look up to or warriors that you want to follow. And to be able to do that one day, you have to understand that sacrifices aren’t meant to make you feel like you can’t have fun – they’re there to empower your discipline and make sure that the next generation are going to come through and take what you did and do it better. And that’s how the culture is going to survive.